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Former Pages Describe Foley as Caring Ally

Congressional pages live under a curfew in this building in Washington. Former pages say Representative Mark Foley was unusually friendly.Credit
Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — In the hierarchy of Congress, the high school students who serve as Congressional pages fall somewhere near the bottom, seemingly invisible as they scurry through the hallways of the Capitol ferrying messages to powerful lawmakers who often fail to give them a second glance.

He took pains to befriend the 16- and 17-year-old aides, several former pages said in interviews on Sunday. He chatted with them on the House floor, they said, sent handwritten notes and urged them to keep in touch when they left Washington for their hometowns.

In 2002, he even stood up on the floor of the House, his eyes welling with tears, and commended the young men and women for their year of service. In his speech, Mr. Foley mentioned several of the high school students by name, describing a handwritten note to celebrate one young man’s graduation and a lunch with another at Morton’s steak house.

Ashley Gallo, a 21-year-old former page who is now a senior at Western Michigan University, said on Sunday that many of her friends had viewed Mr. Foley as one of the few lawmakers who made a real effort to reach out to young people.

“You didn’t have a lot of interaction with the members because most of them treated you like a kid, but he was pretty friendly,” said Ms. Gallo, who served as a page in 2001. “He would talk to people,” she said.

“He would say, ‘Here’s my e-mail address if you want to keep in touch.’ I don’t think anyone thought anything of it. They saw him as a mentor or a reference.”

Mr. Foley’s resignation on Friday, following the disclosure of his sexually explicit Internet and cellphone messages to pages, left many former pages shaken. And on Sunday, they burned up the phone lines and sent e-mail messages flying as they reached out to their old friends who remain tight-knit years after leaving Capitol Hill.

Patrick McDonald, 21, a senior at Ohio State University, said he took Mr. Foley up on his invitation to keep in touch and sent him an e-mail message asking about internship opportunities two years after he completed his work as a page in 2002. He said that he kept up a casual e-mail conversation — chatting about the 2004 presidential election, among other things — with Mr. Foley for several months and that it never became inappropriate.

“If a congressman was talking to you, it was the best thing in the world,” Mr. McDonald said. “And he made himself known to the pages in the first couple of weeks, befriending us, asking us how we were doing. He was one of the cool congressmen. He was willing to chill out with us.”

But despite Mr. Foley’s warm demeanor, Mr. McDonald and another former page said they later became aware that the lawmaker might have a darker side. Mr. McDonald said he learned that Mr. Foley had sexually explicit Internet conversations with several pages who had left the program. “I was disgusted, but I was not surprised when these revelations started circulating,” he said.

Congressional pages come to Washington from across the country, sponsored by their local senator or representative, in a highly competitive program that attracts thousands of applicants each year.

Many describe it as one of the most formative experiences of their lives, giving them a rare, insider’s view of the inner workings of power. Former pages have set up alumni associations and message boards, and exchange e-mail messages and attend reunions to keep the memories of their days in Congress alive.

They describe living in an intensely supervised and sheltered world during their time in Washington. The 72 pages who serve in the House of Representatives are paid a stipend. They share rooms in a two-story, red brick dormitory just blocks from the Capitol and have a 10 p.m. curfew on weeknights and a midnight curfew on weekends.

Pages start classes at 6:45 a.m, and work in the House of Representatives later, answering telephones, delivering documents and running errands for lawmakers. Every night, the former pages said, the dormitory supervisors checked to make sure every page was there on time.

James Kotecki, 20, who was a page in the spring semester of 2003, said his orientation included a video on sexual harassment. He said he did not remember any formal rules against fraternization, however, and added that the young pages enjoyed the rare opportunities to socialize with the lawmakers. He said he met Mr. Foley only in passing, but remembered him as “a nice guy.”

“Pages are kind of very, very low on the totem pole on the Hill,” said Mr. Kotecki, now a senior at Georgetown University. “Anytime a member is nice it’s fantastic because often members don’t give pages the time of day.”

Raymond Schillinger, 20, also a Georgetown student, echoed those thoughts. He worked for Mr. Foley this spring as an intern and said the congressman treated the young staff very well.

“He was very affable, always friendly with the staff, but never over friendly, nothing suggestive,” Mr. Schillinger said.

Matthew Loraditch, who worked as a page with Ms. Gallo and Mr. McDonald in 2001 and 2002, said a supervisor had once casually mentioned that Mr. Foley “was odd” and that he later saw sexually explicit text messages that Mr. Foley had sent to two former pages after they left the program.

But Mr. Loraditch said he was never warned by program supervisors to stay away from him. “He was friendly,” said Mr. Loraditch, who maintains a Web site for alumni and attends Towson University in Maryland. “He would talk to us more than some other members would.”

To this day, Mr. Loraditch still remembers the speech Mr. Foley gave to the pages in 2002. The genial lawmaker stood on the floor of the House and noted that several pages were weeping as he spoke.

“You all have proven without a doubt that you are not only courageous Americans but wonderful young people,” Mr. Foley said on June 6, 2002. “I salute you and I thank you, and I hope you will join me, too, in saluting everyone in the page program that has made this year a resounding, phenomenal learning experience and success for you. God bless you all.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Former Pages Describe Foley As Caring Ally. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe